Activity 3: Contribution of Teacher Inquiry Topics to my Communities of Practice

How it all began...

I began my teaching degree in Christchurch the day before the February 22^nd 2011 earthquake. So, one and a half days into my first residential school (I was a distance student), the University literally fell down around me. Tutors were locked out of their offices, and resources at this time were non-existent.

This was potentially an isolating situation, as I had only met my cohort the day before, and we were living in various locations around New Zealand. So began my first professional Community of Practice, as a facebook group was set up for us all to join and collaborate within, to pool resources and knowledge, and most importantly support each other as we navigated our way through this situation.

My Community of Practice

This community of practice became invaluable over the next three years, and the shared domain grew in strength (Wenger, 2000). The joint enterprise aspect developed as we collectively understood what this community was about and utilized it with questions, queries, communication. Vital when not physically able to meet face to face.

The online interactions built mutual trust (Wenger, 2000) as relationships between members strengthened over time. We had all bonded in a traumatic event, and were all in the same situation of shared challenges and successes as we worked our way through our degrees while the University rebuilt.

I could not have got through this without the shared repertoire of communal resources (Wenger, 2000). People’s strengths and advice helped to support all members. This was a communal place we could share resources to, have questions answered, problems solved. This community of practice became so strong and innovative through a forced situation that over the three year period the University asked for some of our resources, and collectively we instigated changes in practice that the University adopted for future students.

How this has helped me today

Having this experience has set me up with previous experience as I begin the online part of this Mindlab course. I know the value of community of practice to support and help progress members. Who else has such an inside understanding as the members going through the experience?

I am fortunate that my school has a high number of teachers involved in this course, so my need to collaborate online has not been as necessary, as we meet face to face regularly to support each other and work collaboratively on assignments. We still follow the same practice of understanding the joint enterprise purpose for the community, and building mutual trust as the enterprise progresses. Most definitely we share resources and knowledge. My own practice has been able to grow exponentially through this shared interaction.

Questions for Inquiry

My current areas of interest and topics for inquiry are based on questions that have arisen through the growth of my own practice relating to what I have been opened to in Mindlab. These questions are based on the implementation of Must Do/Can Do activities in my classroom practice:

How do I reflect on the learning not the activity ie: How to explain it?

How could implementing flexible timetables lead to more coverage of curriculum? (versus the interruptions to static timetables)

Sharing these questions in a shared domain will inevitably lead to answers and problem solving in a future focused learning area still in the early days of educational change. Mutually, we can begin to identify what is successful practice in this learning style. What are the pitfalls, barriers, challenges to overcome? What are the successes and shortcuts, what works well and how can we support each other to avoid making the same mistakes so we can move forward collaboratively and build more effective classroom practice?

Wenger, E.(2000). Communities of practice and social learning systems. Organization,7(2), 225-246.

“Activity 2: A Change in My Practice Towards Future-oriented Learning and Teaching”

             Changes in Education

In our changing global climate, education reform is inevitable as the demands of the information technology age have created a whole new culture. The old education model is already obsolete, though granted a lot of current theory and pedagogy is still relevant in these initial stages of this paradigm shift.

I have come to teaching as a mature adult and have been trained in the first wave of future focussed education. When I got my first teaching position as a BT, I naively thought all schools were well underway with 21^st Century learning skills. I began to realise the size and scope of the huge educational wheel beginning to turn its cogs towards change. I have seen teachers in resistance to the change, and I began to be afraid I would be left behind in a school system that had not yet embraced the changes needed.

The Influence of Mindlab

Mindlab has upskilled me and replaced this growing fear with excitement and knowledge. I am passionate about deeper approaches to learning and engaging students in critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration and self-directed learning. The way that students engage with these 21^st Century skills is astounding, they are hungry for this new model of teaching and learning.

Our current catch phrases of diversity, student led, lifelong learners and digital classrooms are the new vocabulary that is helping to shape the pathway forward.

One of the themes I have incorporated into my classroom from my experiences with Mindlab is “Changing the script” (MOE, 2012).  I enjoy sharing knowledge with my students as much as any teacher, but I also understand they have access to instant knowledge at their fingertips, therefore understandably this role needed to change from teacher directed.

Self-Regulated Learners

I began to utilise student voice in my classroom last year before this course, and realised how informative it was to guide my practice and make the students feel valued. I had also been an advocate of collaborative classrooms, creating a community of learners. However, the Self-regulation 21^st CLD learning activity rubric (ITL Research, 2016) made me aware that a barrier to actual self-regulation in my classroom was that I was still providing the structure and follow up to their lessons. There was not opportunity for the students to plan their own work.

I began to trial this with a group of students and was immediately able to see the depth of response from my students. Initially I scaffolded through this transition, offering ideas for guidance, but the students quickly adapted and created their own learning goals and follow ups. This has led the students to feel greater freedom and yet more ownership of their learning, to engage their critical thinking skills and collaborative learning, and to problem solve together.

Freedom in the Classroom

The majority of my students moved quickly away from teacher directed into independent learning. I have found this has freed my time to be able to engage and tune in with all my students in a lesson, rather than be tied to a guided group in a fixed rotation model. Both me as a teacher, and my students feel more in control in this rethinking of learner’s and teacher’s roles style of learning.

This is most definitely a knowledge building learning environment, as we learn from each other on this journey. Teachers no longer need to know everything, as we too have access to it all at our fingertips, and students are the richest resource available to us.

ITL Research. (2012). 21CLD Learning Activity Rubrics. Retrieved from https://education.microsoft.com/GetTrained/ITL-Research

 Ministry of Education. (2012). Supporting future-oriented learning and teaching: A New Zealand perspective. Retrieved from https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/schooling/109306

Reflecting on reflecting

I have always considered myself reflective by nature and kept journals all my life in which I reflect on events in my life. When I entered the teaching profession I discovered that being a 'reflective practitioner' was a current catch phrase and requirement, so I felt in alignment and positive with this.

I have always followed my own model of reflection. This is me reflecting on an event, looking at it and analysing positive and negative aspects of it, sometimes alone in my thoughts, sometimes in discussion with others. Then I will apply this to future situations, and on and on in reflective cycles.

It had never occurred to me until this task that there are models of reflection to follow and theories, as it is something that is second nature to me. It is interesting when reading "Reflecting on Reflective Practice" (Finlay, 2009), the various models have overlapping similarities; A form of retrospection or looking back, Self-Evaluation through critical analyse and evaluation of the action and feelings, and Re-Orientation to future actions.

Looking Back - Analysing - Looking forward to the future

I noted in the survey that I am strong in rapid reflection, repair and review, and my school practice of Teaching as Inquiry (TAI) has encouraged and sustained systematic thinking over time inquiring into aspects of my practice with a future focus. I feel this Mindlab activity will open me to Retheorizing using academic theories to look at my own practice and theories.

Due to the pressure in my school to provide fortnightly reflections to be read by Senior Leadership, I have lost some inspiration to reflect authentically, as it often feels 'prescribed.' I understand the use of reflection to transform practice, but subscribed reflection has become more of a tick the box process. This is partly due to reactions to previous reflections I have written. Emotive and thoughtful reflection is promoted as the ultimate style, but in my experience when I have shared a light bulb epiphany or life changing insight about the education model, those that read my reflections have judged and made me defend my position. Reflection is highly personal as well as professional. The impact on this response mode has been to oppress my thoughtful genuine reflections and reproduce bland responses that won't trigger a reaction.

Having examples of models of Reflective practice is helpful as I and my colleagues have sometimes questioned 'What makes a good reflection?' This has not been clearly defined in our schoolwide practice. So although I understand now I follow an optimum model of reflective practice, this is not always acceptable in reality, that it seems prescribed responses are actually all that is required or able to be digested, despite what the leadership team decry they want from us.

As an extremely busy practitioner I have learned it is easier to be bland and inauthentic and NOT rock the boat in my required reflections, so as to continue to focus on my teaching. But I do talk with colleagues and within my thoughts still about events and analyse and how to grow and change and transform.

Finlay, L. (2009). Reflecting on reflective practice. PBPL. Retrieved from https://app.themindlab.com/media/68044/view